1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to delivery of items, and particularly relates to the delivery of items such as parcels (a.k.a. “packages”) that have been shipped by a shipper via a delivery service provider (hereinafter “service provider”), to an intended recipient (a.k.a. “consignee”) and systems and methods for the confirmation of such delivery.
2. Description of Related Art
Proof of actual delivery of ordered items is often desired for the release of payment for such items or for the allocation of inventory to its actual location. For instance, in one scenario a corporate headquarters (HQ) may be responsible for maintaining the inventory in one or more retail outlets. HQ may order items from any number of vendors (a shipper). The vendor may ship the products to the retail outlets via a service provider. Because the shipment of such items may be delayed for various reasons by the vendor, be shipped to the wrong retail outlet, or be damaged or lost in transit, the HQ may be reluctant to pay for items ordered, but may wish to pay only for items actually delivered. Generally, proof of delivery has been a consignee's signature. Some retailers desire greater accountability than mere signature acquisition as such signatures may easily be forged, or desire better systems and methods to reconcile orders, shipments with deliveries. Other forms of delivery confirmation beyond mere signature upon receipt have generally been prohibitively expensive or cumbersome.
In other instances, items that are intended to be shipped to one location may be either incorrectly labeled or inadvertently delivered to another location. Referring back to the HQ and retail outlets example above, there may be multiple retail outlets located relatively close to one another, in some instances there may be retail outlets having the same corporate parent located in the same mall. Although not delivered to its intended location, the inventory items may be accepted and placed into the inventory of the retail outlet in which it is received. In such instances, it may be difficult for the HQ to determine where the inventory items were actually received.
In yet other instances, a customer who has ordered an item may not want their credit card, debit card, bank account or customer account charged until they have received the item. The shipper will require adequate proof that the intended recipient has received the items before charging the customer's account. However, mere signatures may not afford sufficient assurance as an imposter recipient can forge them. The customer may face a difficult challenge in proving that they, in fact, did not receive the package. Conversely, a shipper may face a significant burden in proving that a customer received an item when the customer claims that such receipt never occurred. Furthermore, a shipper will want timely communication of the confirmed delivery so that the shipper may bill and/or collect from the recipient as quickly as possible. Rapid collections avoid the delay from time-dependent cyclical billing and also help decrease bad debt write-offs. Previous delivery and billing systems are also cumbersome for use in present just-in-time and other inventory management systems as in such systems inventory is received in an almost constant stream from one party to the other and traditional time-based cyclical proof of receipt and billing systems are not conducive to such dynamic commerce.
Therefore, systems and methods are needed to overcome the challenges present in the art, some of which have been described above.